Extravehicular Activity€¦ · SpaceX Launch & Entry Suit(?) 24. Extravehicular Activity ENAE 697...

Extravehicular Activity ENAE 697 - Space Human Factors and Life Support

U N I V E R S I T Y O FMARYLAND

Extravehicular Activity

1

• Full pressure suits and high-altitude aviation• Early human space program• Operational suits• Interfaces to habitats and rovers• Spacesuit alternatives

© 2019 David L. Akin - All rights reserved http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu

http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu



Spacesuit Functional Requirements

2

A suit has to • Provide thermal control• Provide a breathable

atmosphere• Hold its shape• Move with the wearer• Protect against external threats• Provide communications and

data interactions



Wiley Post - B. F. Goodrich, 1934

3



“Tomato Worm” Suits - c. 1940

4



XMC-2 Full Pressure Suit (ILC - 1955)

5



Flat Panel Joint

6



Rolling Convolute - Blade Joint

7



Rolling Convolute Arm

8



Toroidal Joint Construction

9



Toroidal Joint Actuation

10



Role of Neutral Axis Restraints

11



Soft Goods - Hardware Interfaces

12



Mercury Space Suits

13



Gemini Pressure Suits

14



Grumman Lunar Suit Concept - 1962

15



JHU Suit Concept (1964)

16



Apollo Suit Contest

17

AX1C AX6H AX5L


U N I V E R S I T Y O FMARYLAND 18



Skylab A7L-B

19



Skylab A7L-B

20



Advanced Crew Escape Suits (ACES)

21



Shuttle Launch and Entry Suit (LES)

22



Boeing Starliner Launch & Entry Suit

23



SpaceX Launch & Entry Suit(?)

24



Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)

25



Existing Pressure Suits

EMU

Hamilton-Standard

AX-5

NASA Ames

Mark III

NASAJSC

Orlan

Russia

26



ESA/Russian Suit Sizing

27



Shuttle EMU Sizing

28



Liquid Cooling Garment Designs

U.S. (ILC-Dover) Russian

29



Pressure Suit Helmet Designs

Spherical Bubble with External

Visor

Fixed Helmet with Faceplate

Hemispherical Bubble Helmet

30



Pressure Suit Entry Systems

Waist Entry

Rear Entry

31



Hard Suits - Not a New Idea (1882)

32



Draeger Suit (Germany - c. 1940)

33



Litton RX-1

34



Wedge Joint Operations

35



NASA Ames AX-1 Hard Suit

36



AX-1

37



AX-1 Dual Planar HUT Entry

38



AX-1 Ingress

39



AX-3 Hybrid Suit

40



AX-3 Suit Ingress

41



AES Experimental Suit

42



AES Shoulder and Elbow Articulation

43



NASA Ames AX-5 Hard Suit

44



Mark III Suit (JSC)

45



Comparative Suit Evaluations - 25 Years Ago

46



Spacesuit Design and Testing (NASA)

47



Single-Hand Reach Envelopes

48



Two-Hand Reach Envelope

49



Elbow Joint Torques

50



Comparative Evaluation Conclusions

51

• Both suits fully capable of all tasks, and comparable in performance to EMU

• AX-5 had more flexible lower torso, no restoring forces for limb motions

• Crew preferences:– Objected to “programming” of multi-roll joints

in AX-5– Preferred soft components in elbows, knees,

and feet– Did not think flexibility in lower body was

desirable



Results of Comparative Assessment

52

• Point was moot - insufficient funding was available for next-generation suit

• EMUs adopted as standard U.S. suit on ISS• NASA Ames suit development program

terminated by the mid-1990’s• All suit development since that time has focused

on soft or hybrid suit concepts



Rear-Entry Suit Donning

53



Waist-Entry I-Suit (ILC)

54



Waist-Entry Suit Donning

55



NASA Suit Concepts c.2000

56



Recent NASA Suit Developments

57



Z-1 Experimental Suit (JSC)

58



NASA Z-2 Suit Concepts

59



NASA Z-2 Crowd-Sourced Design

60



Modified ACES EVA Suit

61



Next Generation: xEMU

62

from Ross and Rhodes, “NASA’s Advanced Extra-vehicular Activity Space Suit…” ICES-2018-273



xEMU HUT and Helmet

63

from Ross and Rhodes, “NASA’s Advanced Extra-vehicular Activity Space Suit…” ICES-2018-273



Voshkhod Airlock (Inflatable)

64



Space Shuttle Airlock (External)

65



Space Shuttle Airlock Interior

66



EMU in Shuttle Airlock

67



ISS Quest Airlock

68



ISS Quest Airlock Interior

69



ILC Inflatable Habitat and Airlock

70



Honeywell Inflatable Airlock (axial)

71



LSAT Airlock

72

• 5.5 m3

• Air density 0.6664 kg/m3 (8 psi with 32% O2)

• Loses 0.128 kg of O2, 0.272 kg of N2 per depress

• Depress time 0.7 hrs



LSAT Suitlock

73



Z-1 Suit in Suitport Test

74



LSAT Suitports

75



Suitlock, Suitport Consumables

76

• Suitlock– 0.123 kg O2

– 0.229 kg N2

– 50 min depress time

• Suitport– 0.016 kg O2

– 0.030 kg N2

– 2 min depress time



Suitport in NASA SEV Rover

77



Suitlock Concept

Patent 5,697,108 (NASA Ames) - Sketch taken from Hazmat application

78



EVA Optimum Work Envelope

79



EVA Gloved Hand Access Requirements

80



Two Human-Powered Vehicles

81



A Vision of the Future of EVA

82

• The conventional space suit is a human-powered device

• As such, it can never do more than asymptotically approach nude-body performance

• The next step in space suit evolution is to use it to give the wearer superhuman capabilities– Sensors (telescopic, microscopic, multispectral)– Brains (advanced computing and data bases)– Muscles (robotic augmentation/amplification)– Appendages (integrated manipulators)

• The next step is the RoboSuit: an EVA/robot symbiosis



Augmenting Human Sensing

83

• Interior sensors– Kinematic sensors (body joint angles)– Biomedical sensors (heart rate, breathing rate)– Workload sensors (VO2, LCVG enthalpy change)– Neuromuscular sensors (EMG, AMG)

• Exterior sensors– Proximity sensors– Noncontact temperature sensors– Navigational data

• Visual sensors– Microscopic and telescopic– Multispectral– Thermal emission spectroscopy



Suit Instrumentation

84

• Goal is to fully instrument human/suit system for quantitative performance metrics

• Extensive sensor suite– Body joint angles– Neuromuscular activity

and fatigue measurement• Metabolic workload sensors• Direct measurement of

reach envelopes, forces and torque



Increasing Data Bandwidth to the Human

85

• Visual displays– Head mounted– Helmet mounted

• Aural displays– Local sound– Synthesized sound

• Haptic displays• Tactile displays



Augmenting Human Cognition

86

• Rote memory– Equipment checklists– Operating procedures

• Diagnostics– Suit built-in self test– Ancillary equipment

• Planning– Route planning– Orbital mechanics

• Scientific knowledge– Access to data bases– “PI in a box”



Augmenting Human Actuation

87

• Mobility– Planetary surfaces– Atmospheric flight– Microgravity mobility

• Manipulation– Controlling external agents– Targeted suit augmentation– Global suit augmentation



Past Suit Mobility Augmentation

88



Approaches to EVA Remote Driving

89

• Compared joystick, trackpad, mouse, and gestural control for simple computer-simulated driving task

• Tasks performed in EMU gloves at 4.3 psi (glove box)

• Results indicated clear advantages of gestural control (precision, accuracy, bandwidth)



I-Suit EVA/Robotic Field Tests

90

• Implemented gestural control of rover for field trials (2004)– Tracking target and grasp sensors

on glove TMG– Tracking camera on helmet visor

assembly• Demonstrate gestural control in total

system application (with JSC/EC, ILC-Dover)– Controlling camera on pan-tilt

unit– Driving EVA support vehicle– Geology camera on staff– Images fed to head-mounted

display• Investigate EVA-designated robotic

geological sampling at UMd following field trials



Free-Flying EVA Tool Tender

91

• Adapted SCAMP free-flying vehicle for EVA support

• Carried EVA tool board for simulated crew activities

• Reduced crew time required for translation, tool handling

• Minimizes use of valuable “real estate” on front of suit for tool storage

• Provides external view of EVA operations



EVA/Robotic Cooperation Background

92

• SSL involvement in EVA/robotic interactions dates back to early 1980’s

• Extensive EVA/robotic servicing tests of Hubble beginning in 1989

• Multiagent operations (EVA, dexterous robot, free-flier, positioning arm) beginning in mid-90’s

• Demonstrated ability of telerobot to rescue incapacitated EVA crew



Robotic Augmentation for EVA Servicing

93

• Studied application of robotics to EVA HST servicing

• Final approach: robot-augmented manipulator foot restraints

• System reduced SM-4 EVA time requirement by 40%

• Further time savings probable through optimal scheduling



EVA/Robotic Servicing of HST

94



Ranger Application to HST SM1

0.000

0.125

0.250

0.375

0.500

0.625

0.750

Ranger (pre-EVA) EV1 - with Ranger Ranger (during EVA) EV2 - with RangerRanger (post-EVA)

EVA Daily Average from SM1

EVA Day 1 EVA Day 2 EVA Day 3 EVA Day 4 EVA Day 5

3:00

0:00

12:00

15:00

9:00

18:00

6:00

Time (hrs)

95



Grasp Analysis of SM-3B

250

76

325

52

1157

1DOF tasks2DOF tasksModified tasksDexterous tasksNot yet categorized

Numbers refer to instances of grasp type over five EVAsTotal discrete end effector types required ~8-10

96



Results of EVA Dexterity Analysis

97

• Broke 63 crew-hrs of EVA activity on SM-3B into 1860 task primitives

• 82.5% of task primitives are viable candidates for 2DOF robotic end effectors– 62.2% 1DOF tasks– 2.8% 2DOF tasks– 17.5% tasks performed differently by robot than EVA

(e.g., torque settings)• 4.1% inherently dexterous tasks• 13.1% cannot be categorized from existing video• All SM-3B robotic tasks can be performed by suite

of 8-10 different end effectors



Suit-Integrated Manipulator

98



Morphing Space Suit Components

99

• Initial focus on morphing upper torso (“MUT”)

• Linear actuators in restraint wires to control position and attitude of neck ring, shoulder bearings, waist ring

• Analytical approach: four intercorrelated Stewart platforms

• Nonideal effects of pressurized fabric on wire runs

• Being extended to power-assisted arm segments



Power-Augmented EMU Glove

100

• ILC-Dover designed EMU glove with MCP joint

• UMd added robotic actuator for MCP joint, control system to follow hand movements

• Reduced force required for MCP actuation from 16 pounds to 12 ounces

• No penetration of pressure bladder (all actuators, sensors, and controls external)



Power Suit

101

• Hard suit (AX-5 shown here) ideal starting point– All rotary joints– Rigid structure for actuator

integration• Use body joint angle sensors

for actuator command inputs• Provide hard stops to protect

wearer• Start with augmentation;

evolve to amplification



Possible Applications of a Power Suit

102

• In-flight EVA training - suit as haptic display device

• Control-mediated operations - limiting velocity, energy input, increasing human accuracy

• Human workload reduction - commanding suit to hold tool in hand, position in foot restraints

• Controllable compliance - select rigidity for microgravity foot restraint activities

• Autowalk• Integrated short-range flight capability - “jump

jets”• Self-rescue - suit returns to airlock if wearer is

incapacitated



Mechanical Counterpressure Suit

103



Webb Space Activity Suit (1971)

104



Web Space Activity Suit (1971)

105



References

106

• Kenneth S. Thomas and Harold J. McMann, US Spacesuits - Springer-Verlag, 2006

• Gary L. Harris, The Origins and Technology of the Advanced Extravehicular Space Suit - AAS History Series, Volume 24, American Astronautical Society, 2001

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Extravehicular Activity€¦ · SpaceX Launch & Entry Suit(?) 24. Extravehicular Activity ENAE 697...

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